OpenSea, presented through a Twitter thread on its official profile, the new optional royalty tools for creators. The detailed Twitter thread opened a massive debate in the NFT community, as it signifies an important and radical change in the ecosystem.
OpenSeaOpenSea, is one of the best known and most important platforms in the NFT industry and in the last hours it has been presented through an official Twitter thread, the new launch of a tool to be applied to the creators’ fees or also known as royalties.
It will be for new NFT collections that are created starting Tuesday, November 8, and will come with other changes. However, OpenSea will run a one-month trial to determine whether to cut creator royalties for existing collections and move to an optional royalty system.
The leading NFT marketplace announced this tooling on Twitter and created a massive debate in the crypto-user community and NFTs in particular. Over time, we will see if this change will bring a negative or positive effect on the Web3 ecosystem. In addition, this announcement generated a lot of expectation, since, OpenSea had been under total silence on this topic, but now finally has announced its stance and tool to be applied with a long-term view.
What are royalties in the NFT market?
Royalties are simply the fees earned by NFT artists each time their work changes hands, i.e., the artist will be paid a percentage of the work he or she makes for life as it passes through different owners. Also, this is equivalent to secondary sales, even.
For artists, this feature in the markets is very important because it gives them the financial freedom to create, produce and charge for great works of art.
Royalties, or also known as Creatro Royalties, have been a popular standard in the Web3 space almost from the beginning, even in OpenSea. Above all, they benefit those who create art, and not the collectors of that art.
In recent months, non-fungible token markets have started to reconsider this model to look for different alternatives. For example, LooksRarethe marketplace for NFTs built on the Ethereum network, and Magic Eden, the Solana marketplace, have changed the model to “optional royalties”.
However, several people were unhappy with this change. The artist NFT, Amber VittoriaNFT, spoke out via Twitter and said that society often values art more than the artist, but Web3 had been a beacon of hope that society can also value the artist while they are alive, implying that artists become more recognized after they are deceased. And she ended her tweet by saying that she was disappointed to see that hope fading with these new market stances.
Chain compliance tool
Starting today, OpenSea will be testing the on-chain fulfillment tool, a code snippet simple that creators can add to future NFTs smart contracts or to upgradable contracts from collections that already exist. In addition, this tool restricts sales of non-fungible tokens on NFT marketplaces that do enforce creator royalties.
Another confirmation that OpenSea made in its press release is that it will not apply creator royalties for new collections that do not opt to use the application tool on-chain. Also, it stated that they will not change existing NFT collections (at least on December 8).
Devin FinzerOpenSea’s CEO, Devin Finzer, commented on the issue in the personal blog published by this company and said that it was clear that the current mechanics of applying fees for creators was not sustainable.
For their part, OpenSea in their detailed Twitter thread, said that to maintain transparency, all options are on the table for the future of creator fees.
Crypto-users against these new tools
Some of the cryptos and artists in the NFT ecosystem came out against these new OpenSea plans. The already named Amber Vittoria was one of the first, but. bobbyhundreds.ethBetty_nft (creator of Deadfellaz) and others also showed their concern on the social network of the little bird.
Betty_nft stated on her profile and said that she spoke with OpenSea, and that from their side it seems that there is no plan as they say. She also added that they did not give her clear answers regarding the collections that already exist and the royalties that are in place for the artists. Also, she was very harsh with her words, as she ended her thoughts by saying that the most famous market communication in the world is misleading.
Final Conclusions
Currently, OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace in the world, and as they move forward with the royalties from creators and their ideas, it will be seen to some extent what the significant impact is on the Web3 industry. What is clear is that they will have to take at least a moment to be able to listen to the artists who are the ones creating, working and relying on commercializing their NFTs in the OpenSea marketplace.
Finally, I believe that if artists are not given the freedom to create art, these spaces and marketplaces could not exist. The support from the communities of those working to create art NFTs also makes OpenSea grow in popularity. Consequently, the market will have to listen clearly to the requests of the creators in order to have an equal balance between them and the market.
All investment or financial opinions on behalf of NFTexpress should not be taken as recommendations. This article is informational/educational material. Before making any type of investment do your own research.
Written by Rodrigo Catalan (TW: @RodrigoCatalanB) for NFT Express.